Flyers will know after first round if they've built a contender

BLOCKUS

It would take more than Bob the Builder to answer the question that Ed Snider and Bob Clarke asked themselves after last season's playoff collapse by the Philadelphia Flyers.

Perhaps collapse is too nice a word. Playoff implosion is so much more appropriate.

The players ripped coach Bill Barber for his lack of practice time on the power play. They ripped him for the lack of a system.

Goaltender Roman Cechmanek ripped his teammates -- during the game -- in Ottawa for their lack of team defense.

Adam Oates, acquired at the trade deadline, took one look at that situation and knew he would not re-sign with the mutineers, er, Flyers.

The Flyers responded with an NHL playoff record-low two goals in a five-game series loss to the Senators.

"Can we build it," Snider and Clarke asked each other, "it" being a Stanley Cup championship.

And in reality, it looked as though they couldn't. John LeClair, Mark Recchi and defensemen Kim Johnsson and Eric Desjardins stopped scoring after the Olympic Break in 2002. And they never got it back for the playoffs.

So with the players underachieving, Snider, the team chairman and founder, and Clarke, the general manager and heart-and-soul of the Flyers only Cup-winning teams (1974 and 1975), did the only thing they knew could shake things up.

They fired the coach.

"Can we build it," they again asked themselves, and this time both responded with a resounding "Yes we can!"

They hired Ken Hitchcock, a former Flyers assistant coach, to replace Barber. Hitchcock left the Flyers and became coach of the Dallas Stars, where he led the former Minnesota franchise to a Stanley Cup in 1999. Hitchcock, who teetered somewhere over 300 pounds in his days as a Philadelphia assistant, dropped more than 70 pounds and became a taskmaster in Dallas.

"Can he build it," Snider and Clarke asked each other. "Yes he can," they replied.

Yes, Hitchcock can build it, because after running through eight coaches in 11 years, the players were finally going to be held accountable. Mr. Snider promised it. Clarkie smiled, this time with front teeth in place.

And Hitchcock cracked the whip the first time a player was 10 seconds late for a meeting or practice.

So instead of trading away the mutineers like captain Keith Primeau, Recchi and Eric Desjardins, the Flyers found a way to add center Michal Handzus, Claude Lapointe, wingers Sami Kapanen and Tony Amonte, and defenseman Dmitry Yushkevich.

Despite a power play that finished in the worst third of the league, the Flyers recorded a 107-point season, their best total since earning 110 points in 1985-86. They finished with more than 100 points for the third time in four seasons.

And they put teams (and sometimes fans) to sleep with defensive hockey, allowing just 166 goals, tied for the league low with New Jersey.

If defense wins championships, the Flyers have a fighting chance at the Cup. But in order to reach that goal, they must escape the failures of playoffs past. Especially in the first round.

"Can we build it," Snider and Clark ask each other as Game 1 of the playoffs speeds to the present.